Toothpastes and Teeth Whitening

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Colgate

Broad Question: Which Different Types of Colgate Toothpaste Whitens Teeth the Best?

Specific Question: Does Colgate Pro-Clinical White, Optic White, or Baking Soda & Peroxide Bubbles Toothpaste Work Better to Whiten Teeth and Remove Stains?

Variables

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http://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/28051/300.jpg

Independent Variable: Toothpaste.

Dependent Variable: The Number of Brushes.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled: Staining on the Eggs, Toothbrush, and the Person Brushing.

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that Colgate Optic White will be the Best Toothpaste to Whiten Teeth, Followed by Baking Soda & Peroxide Bubbles, and then Pro-Clinical White.

Graph of Hypothesis:

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General Plan

Experimental Design:

I am going to conduct an experiment to see which Colgate toothpaste removes stains and whitens teeth the best. I will conduct my experiment at home on my kitchen table. I will have three brands of Colgate toothpaste to test. I will have Optic White, Pro-Clinical, and Baking Soda with Peroxide Bubbles. I will be testing each one on three different stains which will be on three separate eggs. I am going to have five different trials on each egg, for each toothpaste. As I conduct my experiment, I will record the data on a printed out data table, and then record it on my digital data table at school. To document my project, I will take pictures of each egg and how the toothpaste worked out on removing the stains and whitening.

Materials:

• 1 Toothbrush
• Coffee
• Kool-Aid
• Cranberry Juice
• Camera
• Water
• 4 Cups
• Data Table to record the # of brushes
• Pencil
• 9 Eggs
• A Roll of Paper Towel

Detailed Procedure:

1. Grab materials.
2. Put three cups on the table, each one next to each other.
3. Fill one cup up with cold coffee, one with Kool-Aid, one with Cranberry Juice, and the last one with plain water.
4. Take one egg and dip it in the coffee for about three seconds.
5. Take the egg dipped in coffee and quickly dip it in water to rinse it off.
6. Lightly dry it off with a paper towel, just so that it is not dripping.
7. Take toothbrush and dip the tip of it in the glass of water.
8. Choose a toothpaste to test on the coffee stained egg and put a small glob on the brush of the toothbrush.
9. Start brushing the egg in an up and down motion slowly. Count each time you go up and down to keep track.
10. Compare the color to one plain egg.
11. When the area of the egg is back to normal, stop brushing. (compare to plain egg)
12. Record the number of brushes it took to get the egg back to its plain white color.
13. Complete steps 4-12, four more times.
14. Complete steps 4-12, five times with the other two toothpastes.
15. Using Kool-Aid instead of coffee, complete steps 4-12 for all three toothpastes.
16. Repeat step 15, but using Cranberry Juice.

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Background Research

1. I looked up the basic ingredients in toothpaste. I found out that most toothpaste's have Fluoride, Antibacterial agents, Desensitizing agents, Anti-Tartar agents, Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), Enzymes, and Xylitol. Those are the Active ingredients. The inactive ingredients are, Water, Detergents, Binding agents, Humectants, Flavoring, sweetening, and coloring agents, Preservatives, and Abrasives.
2. 
   I looked up what causes stains to form on teeth. I learned that they can be caused by many substances that stain teeth, like juice, or soda. The Oral Flora contains many types of Chromogenic deposits which cause the stains. Lastly, stains are seen in Porphyria Erythroblastosis Fetalis and Tetracycline therapy.
3. I also looked up what a tooth was made of. I learned that humans have four different types of teeth. They have Incisors-for cutting off bites of food,
   Cuspids-for tearing food,
   Bicuspids-to tear and crush food, and
   Molars- with large relatively flat surfaces to crush and grind food. The hard material on teeth is called calcium, phosphorus, and other mineral salts. Most of the teeth are made up of dentine, and the hard part of the tooth that is shiny, is called the enamel. I also learned that teeth are made up of only two parts. They are made up of a roots, that hold the tooth into the gums, and a crown that is on top of the gum line.
4. Lastly, I read a book on the danger of Plaque. Every ones mouth are full of bacteria, but not all bacteria is harmful. Without brushing your teeth, the bacteria will create hard enamel on your teeth. When you eat sugary foods, the plaque sticks onto the tooth even more. The sugary foods will also make the plaque create acid, which will eat into your tooth enamel. This creates cavities. The more the acid, the bigger holes that will be created in your teeth, which causes the cavities to form. When your tooth starts to hurt, that means that the acid has reached your nerves, and the cavity is fully there.

References:

1. "Dental Stains." SlideShare.net. SlideShare Inc., 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.slideshare.net/shabeelpn/dental-stains>.
2. Parker, Steve. "Teeth and Jaw." Human Body. United States, USA: School Specialty Publishing, 2006. 64., . . Print.
3. "What are teeth made of?." CoolQuiz.com. Demand Media Inc. , 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/teeth.asp>.
4. "What are the basic ingredients of toothpaste?." Ask Yahoo!. Yahoo Inc., 2000. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://ask.yahoo.com/20000928.html>.

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Results

Data Table

Graphs

Photos

Kool-Aid

Coffee

Cranberry Juice

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Data Analysis

Conclusion

The original purpose of this experiment was to test out which Colgate toothpaste whitens, and removes stains the best. The results of this experiment were that the Baking Soda and Peroxide Bubbles whitens and removes stains the best. The average number of brushes for the coffee stain is 19.4 brushes. The average number of brushes for the Kool-Aid staining is 19.6 brushes, and the brushes average number of brushes for the cranberry juice staining is 21. Overall, the lowest number of brushes it took to remove stains and whiten teeth were with the Baking Soda and Peroxide Bubbles toothpaste.

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Discussion

My hypothesis was, “I hypothesize that Colgate Optic White toothpaste will be the best to whiten teeth, followed by Baking Soda and Peroxide Bubbles and then Pro-Clinical White. My final results do not support my hypothesis. The toothpaste that worked the best was the Baking Soda and Peroxide Bubbles. In this test, my independent variable is the toothpaste, and my dependent variable is the number of brushes. They do have a relationship. Depending on how well the individual toothpaste works, determines the number of brushes needed to remove stains and whiten your teeth. If a toothpaste does not work as well as another, it will need more brushes in order to clean your teeth well. If one of the toothpaste works really well, it won’t need as many brushes as other toothpastes for cleaning your teeth. Some of the patterns and trends I notice in the data is that the number of brushes are between twenty-three and eighteen for each toothpaste. There is no trial that has a number of brushes going over twenty-three, or under eighteen. I think that the tests I did went smoothly with minor problems. The only minor problem that I had while conducting this experiment was the fact that the coffee and the cranberry juice did not stain as well as the Kool-Aid did. If I could improve my experiment, I would let the eggs sit longer in the Coffee and in the Cranberry Juice, so they would stain more. An interesting future study might involve testing which Colgate toothpaste works the best in cleaning your teeth.